The hard right of the living dead – the march of the Tory hordes

The tense, watchful silence. Then the corpse twitches and begins to reanimate.

Unless dealt with, it will stumblingly take to its feet and set a course for carnage, a rotten, fleshy palimpsest, with only one aim – to destroy the living and create others like itself.

Hands up who thought of this as we watched the Scottish Tories reanimate after last Thursday’s council elections?

Once consigned to the grave, the army of the Tory undead has escaped the crypt and is marching across the country – even some of our previously impregnable housing schemes – in a grotesque carnival of anti-life. It’s the hard right of the living dead.

In popular culture, a zombie outbreak is often used as a cipher for the break down of society, or as the catalyst of the apocalypse.

It might be pushing it a bit to claim that the election of a bunch of Thatcherite spivs, Rhodesia-nostalgist Powellite loons and austerity fetishists presages the End Times, but we have to be wary.

And, for all this zombie blether, we have to take this seriously.

The resurrection of the Tories – even if it is only as the receptacle of the despairing unionism of a dying demographic – represents a threat to the third sector.

More Tories on councils mean more Tories on committees, means more Tories making decisions which will affect communities and charities relying on local authority funds.

Let’s look at who was elected last week. Where to start? There’s the one who posts links to fascist groups like Britain First and the English Defence League. There’s the one whose details appeared on a BNP database. There’s the one who thinks poor people shouldn’t have children. There’s the activists who think Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. There’s the one who ate a live hen harrier at a Countryside Alliance rally because the PC Nazis said he shouldn’t.

I may have made one of those up. But you’d believe it.

A large part of their success has been attributed to the “human face” Ruth Davidson has given them. Am I the only person not to have fallen for her? Because behind every “hilarious” photo-shoot and supposedly side-splitting gag is her defence of the rape clause and a family visiting a foodbank and a sanctioned claimant driven to suicide.

Davidson, at best, is the flesh of something once alive which has been pulled over the screaming death’s head of Tory-style free market capitalism.

Maybe, as some have claimed, we reached “peak Tory” at the local elections. But maybe, as Scottish politics cleaves along the lines set by the unresolved national question and as a paralysed Scottish Labour Party fails to reposition and continues to collapse, these howling wraiths from the past do have some sort of a future.

Maybe that’s them rattling the door and clawing at the windows and maybe we should be prepared.

Comments

I thought Third Force News and the charities & non governmental organisations it represents was meant to be politically neutral?

12th May 2017 by Andrew Ewing

Don't abuse your position of trust to peddle third-rate hate.

14th May 2017 by Mark

This manages to bring your entire organisation into disrepute.You role is to support those who rely on you not those who pay you.

16th May 2017 by Jack

Honestly Graham? The best you can come up with is Tories are evil? That's a significant part of the electorate you're writing off as not worth your time. Alienating that amount of people will do more harm than good for all our causes. Our job is to work within policy and try to change it for the benefit of our service users. If we call every policy creator and their supporters malignant forces to be battled we're hardly likely to convince those people to create change. Grow up and start negotiating like an adult instead of damaging everybody's prospects by stamping your feet like a teenager who's been denied permission to stay out late.

16th May 2017 by Shona

I'm shocked and saddened by both the content and tone of this article - by TFN's news editor. Perhaps someone at TFN would like to explain how this is appropriate?

16th May 2017 by Bob Davies

Shocking article, I will be putting in a complaint about this to the relevant body. Agree with all the above comments is very immature and childish, and there is no impartiality at all. I will be stopping using Goodmoves website to attract new candidates from now on.

16th May 2017 by Stuart

Which parts are so disagreeable - the facts?Davidson?Tory's supports Rape Clause ?Tory sanctions are devastating vulnerable families - and the worst has still to come ?The growth in people including working families who rely on Food banks - should that make us proud to be Scottish ?No doubt the Tories will win a couple of seats in the Election and then claim the whole of Scotland supports them

16th May 2017 by RealFreedom

Thousands of volunteers in community groups up and down the country are Conservative voters or members. SCVO clearly hates them, and considers their contribution of no worth. Unless you adhere to the dogmatic Marxist claptrap that TFN peddles, you are not to be represented by SCVO.This was not a guest comment, but the news editor, so we can assume that this is the official SCVO policy position.So be it - SCVO is now the enemy, and will be treated accordingly.

19th May 2017 by B Stephenson

Completely agree with your comments realfreedom, and we as an organisation have already taken steps to not move goodmoves job website moving forward. This will equate to about 10 posts per annum, not lots but is a worthwhile stance, s1 jobs will be used from now on.

TFN is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registration number SC003558.